The witness also told jurors the episode left her (Ms Cruickshanks) crying and nervous and that she reported it to police.

Officers later reported back that Ms Fleming said she was “quite happy” staying at the property, the court heard.

The Crown alleges the incident happened in 1997, while the witness said she believed it to be in 1996.

Ms Cruickshanks told the court she never saw, or had contact with, her daughter again after that visit, apart from a possible sighting of her with Cairney near a supermarket.

The sighting was said to be a couple of months afterwards, although the court later heard she told police Ms Fleming was aged in her 20s by that point.

By October 2016, the court heard that police were conducting an investigation into Ms Fleming being a missing person.

Advocate Depute Iain McSporran QC, prosecuting, asked the witness about her feelings towards her daughter over the years that had elapsed with no contact.

She said: “I actually thought she was getting on with her life and enjoying herself in every way possible. I never thought the likes of this would happen.”

She added: “I thought she was still with Eddie Cairney and Avril Jones.”

Asked whether she thought she was welcome in her daughter’s life, she replied: “No, I don’t think so.”

Thomas Ross QC, representing Cairney, suggested to the witness that she had been shouting and swearing and had spat on Cairney during the alleged assault.

Ms Cruickshanks denied doing so.

Mr Ross also told the court that 23 separate people contacted police to say they might have seen Ms Fleming after officers put up posters around the area as part of their inquiry into her disappearance in 2016.

During questioning by Ian Duguid QC, for Jones, the court heard Ms Cruickshanks went to social workers with a friend in October 1995 because of concerns over her teenage daughter’s behavioural difficulties.

Paperwork from the department at Inverclyde Council from that time noted Ms Fleming to be “a rather lonely, isolated girl” and said she “may feel rejected by her mother”.

Cairney and Jones are accused of murdering Ms Fleming, who would now be 37, by unknown means at some point between December 18 1999 and January 5 2000 - a charge they deny.